The present disclosure is directed toward an exceptionally stable yet small and lightweight tray for holding one or more ice cream cones without the tray and cone or cones tipping over.
Most ice cream cones, particularly so-called "sugar cones", have a conical shape and therefore once the ice cream is placed on the cone, the cone must always be either held or placed in a holder of some type. Some ice cream establishments simply pass the cones to the customer and let him or her worry about holding one or more cones while at the same time trying to find the correct change to pay for the cones. Other ice cream establishments have permanent trays mounted on the top of counters for temporarily holding the ice cream cones. There are various portable trays but they are not stable until more than one cone is placed in the tray, are inordinately large in order to maintain stability, or else consist of various pieces, such as two parallel shelves with coaxial openings therein and connecting legs. These latter trays are relatively expensive to manufacture, typically involving significant labor costs. Until now there has not been a small, easy to store, reliable and convenient to use tray which is both inexpensive and attractive.
The ice cream cone tray of the present invention is able to hold any number of cones up to its maximum design capacity without tipping over. The tray includes cone fitting sockets which angle the cones tray-inwardly, thereby keeping the center of gravity of the combined tray and ice cream cone or cones with ice cream thereon close to the center of gravity of the tray and greatly increasing stability as compared with other trays. The specially fitted sockets enable the tray to be extremely small for the number of cones it holds. The construction enables the tray to be extremely lightweight, inexpensive and easy to manufacture of thermoformed plastic having a unitary construction. In the preferred embodiment, the tray has three cone sockets and the sidewall structure is so designed that the tray is easy to grasp with one hand to carry the loaded cones safely while they rest snugly in their sockets, perhaps with the ice cream on the tops of the cones leading slightly against each other, thereby involving the loaded cones themselves in rendering the cones stable during movement of the tray and cones.
Each socket includes a relatively rigid curved recess in an inside wall segment, the curved recess having a hemi-conical surface with the vertex end toward the bottom of the tray. Opposite the hemi-conical surface of the curved recess is a reasonably strong but resilient planar sidewall. The sidewall gives imperceptibly when the cone is placed in the socket, pressing the cone gently against the conical surface. The interior wall segments are interconnected for greater structural strength. Means are provided for joining the sidewalls with the interconnected interior wall segments. In the preferred embodiment this is provided by horizontal base portions extending between the interior wall segments and sidewalls. The base of the tray rests on the counter or the table top. Also, in the preferred embodiment the sidewalls are connected by exterior wall segments to strengthen the sidewalls. Openings are provided in the exterior wall to permit lifting and holding the tray by a sidewall.